Is there a good introductory read on like kremlinology but for China?
It’s like I’m not sure what to think about when I think about “China.” The party? Xi? Various powerful families? Their monetary policy?
🤔 what do you think about when you think about India or the US? I bet if you made a short list of each of those things you’d sort of see China looming at you as the... haha... the third body
first things I tend to think about fwiw are the century of humiliation and the opium wars etc. I think of the narrative as something like “a proud people who have been patiently working and making sacrifices etc to return to glory” - sacrifices here ofc incl some terrible things
This is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking specific people and orgs making specific decisions like interest dates or deals with China or “let’s send vandals to H&M” or “put Uighur in concentration camps”
Oh right gotcha. You’ll find some interestingly revealing things looking at what Singaporean diplomats have said about their Chinese counterparts. I know George Yeo has said lots of stuff tho I’m not sure if this is particularly one of the good ones